Here's What Drives Aussie Entrepreneur Sam Wines

In case you've been hiding under a rock the last few years or somehow haven't seen him in your Instagram feed or in the social pages of the SMH - Sam Wines is Australia's newest quadruple threat - model, creative, influencer, and entrepreneur. Widely regarded as one of the nicest and hardest working guys in the industry, Montblanc gave us the opportunity to sit down with the man to understand just exactly what makes him tick.

Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us Sam. Let's get straight into it. What motivates you to get out of bed every morning and keep moving forward?

Thanks for having me guys! This may be an odd one, but it's my morning routine that makes me want to get up in the morning. I know that if I wake up early, meditate, exercise, and read before I start my work day I'll be energised and productive.

And what does that ritual entail?

Most mornings I wake up around 6:00 am, drink a glass of water with salt and lemon juice, exercise (either yoga or a light run), meditate for 20-30 minutes, run through my morning skincare routine, get ready for work, and write down my daily to-do's in order of importance following the 1-3-5 method. Also, I usually don't have breakfast until after 10-11am., I do have to stress that although this is my regular morning routine, I rarely complete everything on my list every day. Most days I would hit around to 80% of my routine, there's always room to improve!

Wow, that sounds pretty brutal mate! Moving on... your 103,000 followers would have noticed a recent shift in approach, from being an individual influencer to a team orientated publisher, what prompted this move?

This really has been on the cards since I first started Man of Style, I never really intended it to be a solo venture. Around a year after Max came on board, we both decided that it was time to expand the business and began to transition from an individual blog and Instagram to an online publication.

How does this work alongside your other business, Cognito Social?

Quite seamlessly. Man of Style is actually a client of our creative agency, Cognito Social. So, the branding, website development, digital content creation, copywriting, and account management is all managed by Cognito Social. Having both the online publication and a digital creative agency allows us to effectively leverage both businesses strengths to our advantage.

With your diverse workload, what tips could you provide for efficiently allocating and managing time throughout the day?

I'm not going to pretend it is easy, nor that I have it all figured out. Running multiple businesses at once is hard work. Throughout the day you are constantly bombarded with notifications, calls and emails from both businesses. These are all demanding your attention, so it can be hard to filter it all out and focus on getting into a flow state for example.

To combat this, I usually don't check emails until 11 am, and try to spend the first hour of work focusing on my number one task on my to-do list.

I usually find the Pomodoro technique a useful way to segment my day too.

What do you love about representing the Montblanc brand and which of Montblanc's values do you feel you align most with?

For me, I see Montblanc as a brand steeped in heritage that epitomises both quality and good craftsmanship—two fundamental principles of which I place the utmost importance in when it comes to my personal belongings. Most importantly to me, however, Montblanc is constantly in the pursuit of perfection when it comes to its products. They are forever innovating and trying to set the standard with any product they produce. This value of continual improvement resonates closely with me. In fact, it almost mirrors one of my core mantras: do something make yourself better every day.

Finally...where do you hope to be in 5 years?

When it comes to personal goals outside of business, I find myself gravitating towards introspective goals that are dynamic rather than static—something that doesn't have a definitive external yardstick. So when it comes to where I envision myself to be in 5 years time, I hope that I will still be focusing on education, and be surrounded by good people that motivate me to become the best version of myself.